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World Congress of Families Meets, Seeks a New Dark Ages

By Gillian Kane

…ts were oppressive when they protected reproductive and gender rights (or “new” rights), whereas, when it came to protecting “traditional” rights to freedom of religion and speech, they were suddenly fundamental. New rights, they argued, cannot supersede traditional human rights. When they do, these rights violations must be redressed. This very argument is being used in the debate over the Obama health care reform law, one of the main objections…

Purpose Driven Politics: Rick Warren’s Civil Service

By Bill Berkowitz

…the conventions and things go dark for a couple of weeks,” Warren told the New York Times. “I’ve known both the guys for a long time, they’re both friends of mine, and I knew them before they ran for office, so I just called them up.” According to press reports, the questions will center on AIDS, poverty, human rights and the environment. Not everyone was thrilled by the choice of topics. In his daily FRC Action Update (July 21), the Family Resear…

With the Death of One of the Last Three Shakers, an American Religious Tradition Takes a Step Closer to Extinction

By Ed Simon

…s an opportunity to make the world new. As Mother Ann would reflect on her new home in upstate New York, “I saw a large tree, every leaf of which shone with such brightness as made it appear like a burning torch, representing the Church of Christ, which will yet be established in this land.” Like so many other heterodox religious communities that proliferated in early America, Lee saw in the continent an opportunity for remaking society in a more…

Predicting the Future of Religion: A Thought Experiment

By Ed Simon

…SIS in Iraq and Syria could possibly signal the beginnings of a terrifying new chapter in religious oppression. Will our future historian write about bloody religious crusades between Muslims and Christians in the new Global South? Or will small but growing secular movements in Africa and Asia prevent this? What will our historian say about the growth of “indigenous” religion? From Max Muller to Mircea Eliade western scholars have often patronizin…

Newt Gingrich, New Catholic, Presidential Hopeful

By Joanna Brooks

…ial conservatives will forget their deep-seated anti-Papistry and love his new Jesus credentials. 3. Newt Gingrich is hoping the Latino base will forget the Republican’s deep-seated anti-immigrant politics and love his new Jesus credentials. 4. Mrs. Gringrich the third (the former Callista Bisek, who we are trying not to notice met her husband by having an affair with him during his second marriage) has serious Catholic cred as well as serious f…

Sikh Prof Attacked on Heels of New Study

By Rob Shryock

…ght as attackers reportedly shouted “terrorist” and “get Osama.” While the new study shows that more than half of Americans associate the turban with bin Laden, anti-Sikh hatred may not be quite as simple as a case of mistaken identity. The correlation between America’s lack of knowledge of Sikhs and frequent animosity toward them was highlighted in the study by Peace by Design (PxD), an initiative of the consulting firm Social by Design (SxD) on…

Devil’s Bookmark: Atheism for Smarties

By Bernard Schweizer

…, and Nietzschean philosophy (James and Freud), man had the need to find a new God. That new God, according to Lukacs, is the omniscient narrator who, god-like, creates worlds and populates them with actors, as well as inventing goals and life-paths for his protagonists, all the while holding the strings in his (invisible) hands. Well, if metafiction is the death of the omniscient narrator, it may well be the death of the God-substitute as well. M…

Fight the Power: How to Read, and Re-Read, the Book of Revelation

By Wil Gafney

…st after John wrote—maybe 60 years later—there is this movement called the New Prophesy, a charismatic revival movement with both men and women prophets. For them the Book of Revelation tells us that the New Jerusalem is coming soon, Jesus is about to return—and one of the prophets actually says that he returned in the form of a woman. Have you encountered this? A little bit, when I did my work on female prophets. But do we have any sense of what…

Does Religion Drive Evolution? And Other Questions from the Cutting Edge of Biohistory

By Arri Eisen

…volution analysis, as well as the broad conclusions, like that of the Tay-Sachs hypothesis, which have not yet been experimentally demonstrated. Personally, my bet is with the new data and interpretations. The intriguing part will be to see how these new data and ideas get integrated into our culture….

Clashing human rights visions for LGBTs at United Nations; More Mixed Messages from the Vatican as Family Synod Begins; Timeline of Worsening Homophobia by Turkey’s AKP Party; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…n the United States, the LGBTI rights movement is turning its attention in new directions, and Alturi is committed to making the worldwide human rights of LGBTI people a priority… Alturi is designed to help Americans learn about the issues facing LGBTI people around the world and take action in support of LGBTI advocates creating change worldwide. Alturi features real-life stories, accessible analysis, and a curated newsfeed to help visitors make…